Where the External and Internal Worlds MeetAnnell Livingston's paintings are on exhibit with Karen Bexfield's glass sculptures

Annell Livingston grew up on the south coast of Texas and enjoyed drawing and painting as a child. She loved color during her youth and still uses a wide range of subtle colors in her grid paintings, which are in exhibit in the two-artist show “Equilateral Attraction” that opens at Winterowd Fine Art on March 16.

“I always start with one color, which leads me to the next one,” she explains. “All I have to do is look outside my door to see some wonderful colors, especially at sunset. I always draw colors from nature. Colors flow organically from me.”

The paintings on display have been created during the past three years that Livingston has been working with acrylics.

They’re inspired by Taos, her home since 1994, but not about Taos. “My work is not about the external world but where the external and internal worlds meet,” she adds.

A day in the studio begins with writing, which Livingston says helps her get in touch with her art. Then it’s on to selecting a color. The rest of the work emerges naturally, without forced effort.

Livingston’s journey as an artist began in the early 1960s, when she studied with Lowell Collins at the Lowell Collins School of Art in Houston, and continued at Louisiana Tech. By the 1980s, she was teaching classes at the Art League of Houston and the Watercolor Society of Houston.

In 1991, while she was living in Houston, Livingston started reevaluating her artistic direction. She began creating grids based on the square, which seemed to be the perfect symbol for the city. After moving to Taos, she added a diagonal line to the grids, which allowed her to include irregularities of the landscape around her.

“I’m in the studio every day, just being an artist,” she says.

Karen Bexfield, an Albuquerque artist who earned a master of science degree in physical therapy and has been working in glass since 2003, shares the show with Livingston.

Bexfield likes to experiment and push the limits of the material. Through the manipulation of heat and mass, she creates kiln-formed glass sculptures that mirror the organic patterns of nature. Her work explores the relationship and balance between positive and negative space and light and shadow.